Thesis (D. Ed. Min.)--Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, 2008. / Abstract. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 153-157).

Thesis (D. Min.)--Northern Baptist Theological Seminary, Lombard, Ill., 2002. / Abstract. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 221-229).

To understand the evolutionary and ecological significance of geographic variation in life history traits, we must understand whether the patterns are induced through plastic or adaptive responses. The Eastern Fence Lizard, Sceloporus undulatus , exhibits countergradient variation (larger body sizes, et cetera, in northern, cooler environments; presumed adaptive) in life history traits across its large geographic range. However, cogradient variation (the expected result from a plastic response, although not necessarily inconsistent with adaptation) has been suggested as a null hypothesis, especially on fine geographic scales because of relatively small environmental changes. Here we focus on life history variation on a fine geographic scale to test whether cogradient variation is exhibited even though countergradient variation is exhibited at larger scales, and if so, what mechanisms are involved in the switch. We examined north and south populations (~2° latitude between) of the S. undulatus, and the Florida Scrub Lizard, S. woodi , by measuring adult body sizes, reproduction, and hatchling body sizes over a two year period and conducting reciprocal transplants of juvenile lizards each year. Our results indicate cogradient variation (larger body size in the southern population experiencing a warmer environment) in life history traits of S. undulatus and countergradient variation, a lack of variation in adult body size, in S. woodi along the Florida peninsula. Thus, S. undulatus exhibits cogradient variation at fine geographic scales and countergradient variation at larger scales. Reciprocal transplants revealed that the larger adult body sizes in the southern population of S. undulatus could be explained by longer growth periods allowed by greater intrinsic survival. In S. woodi, the larger than expected adult body sizes in the north could be explained by faster intrinsic and extrinsic juvenile growth rates in the northern population. Because S. undulatus and S. woodi remain distinct species associated with distinct, though adjacent, habitats, we also looked for habitat-specific adaptations. The second reciprocal transplant (between species and habitats) revealed habitatspecific adaptations in juvenile growth rates, but not juvenile survival. Each native species grew faster and had a higher average probability of reaching size at maturity in their native environment than did the foreign species.

The salamander family Sirenidae is composed of two extant genera, Siren and Pseudobranchus, each with two known species. Several questions regarding Sirenidae life history persist, and much of the available life history data for Pseudobranchus are attributed to studies of P. axanthus in northern Florida. Information on the reproductive biology of P. axanthus is limited, and historical references often suggest contradictory results. This study was undertaken to clarify information and expand on the limited data regarding P. axanthus reproductive biology, specifically for southern Florida populations. The study population was most likely the P. a. belli subspecies. P. axanthus in southern Florida exhibited year round, continuous reproduction with oviposition documented in nine months. Potential clutch size was positively correlated to female size. The largest observed potential clutch was a female with 58 pre-ovulatory oocytes. The largest observed bout was a female with 15 oviductal eggs. Female P. axanthus in southern Florida oviposited eggs singly and at total densities of 3-4 eggs/m2. Developmental time to egg hatching lasted about 30 days, larvae hatched at 16mm TL, and minimum size at female sexual maturity was 115mm TL and 72mm SVL. The reproductive biology of P. axanthus was distinctly contrasting to other members of the family Sirenidae, S. intermedia and S. lacertina, that occupy the same habitat at the same study location.

Relatively little change in national soybean (Glycine max) yield over the previous years have led many farmers to creating management regimes focused on plant stress. Field experiments consisting of two different relative maturity (2.8RM and 4.5 RM) soybean cultivars were established at three locations across Kentucky in 2013 and 2014. Each maturity group received a single application, sequential applications, or a combination of the following treatments: N’N-diformyl urea, lactofen, lambda-cyhalothrin with thiamethoxam, and azoxystrobin with propiconazole. Relative maturity and yield environment*treatment interactions were observed to be significant (p 0≤.05). 4.5 RM soybean cultivars yielded significantly greater (800 kg ha-1) than 2.8 RM cultivars. Compared to the untreated check, no treatment in the yield environment*treatment interaction significantly increased yield. Significant yield decrease varied across yield environment, but was observed for treatments containing a combination of lactofen and N’N-diformyl urea. Application of stress management practices was not a consistent approach to improving soybean yield.

In this study, we focus primarily on the importance of organisation and UX-maturity for applying user experience (UX). What does this mean for designers when maturity is low or high? The study shows that the user is an expert based on his/her personal experience of a product, allowing the user to select and influence solutions that best meet his/her needs. UX maturity is a highlighted concept in this UX study. If UX maturity of an organisation is low then UX is likely only applied by few or no one within the design team. If the maturity on the other hand is high, the organisation and its design team work with an UX-approach. The approach therefore becomes a part of the organisational culture and through this shows how the business benefits of UX. This then creates a win-win situation for the user, designer and organisation. If however everybody practices UX, what will then happen to the UX-role? Is it however reasonable that only one person should be responsible for UX? We gathered 12 experts from companies in Gothenburg and talked about how it has been, present challenges and together we speculated about the future UX role. We also discussed the significance organisations maturity has for those who work with UX. The results show that knowledge of UX should be disseminated at all levels and that at a high maturity UX strategy becomes part of the overall plan. When the maturity is high practitioners of UX get the opportunity to narrow and broaden their skills. Is maturation however low more responsibility may be placed upon the individual designer. The designer may not have the same opportunity to become an expert in their field and are instead forced to have a wider and not as deep expertise. / Detta arbete fokuserar främst på organisationens och den upplevda UX-mognadens betydelse för den som tillämpar user experience (UX). Vad innebär det för designers när mognaden är låg respektive hög? Man menar att användaren är expert, detta baserat på sin upplevelse av produkten. Idag kan användare själv välja vilka lösningar som bäst motsvarar önskade behov. I denna studie om UX lyfts begreppet UX-mognad. Om UX-mognaden i en organisation är låg betyder det att eventuellt ingen eller få i designteamet tänker användarcentrerad design. Är mognaden däremot hög innebär det att organisation och designteam gemensamt jobbar med UX som förhållningssätt. Det skapar en win-win-situation för både användare, designer och organisation. Men om alla nu å andra sidan använder termen och jobbar UX, vad kommer då att hända med rollen UX? Är det rimligt att enbart en person skall ansvara för UX? Vi samlade 12 experter från företag i Göteborg och samtalade om vilka utmaningar som funnits, vilka som finns idag och tillsammans talade vi om UX-rollen. Vi diskuterade även om den betydelse som en organisations mognad har för de som arbetar med UX. Resultatet visar att kunskap om UX bör spridas i alla led och att med hög mognad blir UX-strategi en del av den övergripande planen. Utövare av UX får här tillfälle att ge sin kompetens en spets och ett djup. Är mognaden däremot låg kan det ligga mer ansvar på den enskilde designern, designern får heller inte samma möjlighet att bli expert på sitt område, utan tvingas ha en bredare och inte lika djup kompetens.

In this thesis, we develop and test a technology for computer-assisted assessments of newborn brain maturity from sleep electroencephalogram (EEG). Brain maturation of newborns is reflected in rapid development of EEG patterns over a number of weeks after conception. Observing the maturational patterns, experts can assess newborn’s EEG maturity with an accuracy ±2 weeks of newborn’s stated age. A mismatch between the EEG patterns and newborn’s physiological age alerts clinicians about possible neurological problems. Analysis of newborn EEG requires specialised skills to recognise the maturity-related waveforms and patterns and interpret them in the context of newborns age and behavioural state. It is highly desirable to make the results of maturity assessment most accurate and reliable. However, the expert analysis is limited in capability to estimate the uncertainty in assessments. To enable experts quantitatively evaluate risks of brain dysmaturity for each case, we employ the Bayesian model averaging methodology. This methodology, in theory, provides the most accurate assessments along with the estimates of uncertainty, enabling experts to take into account the full information about the risk of decision making. Such information is particularly important when assessing the EEG signals which are highly variable and corrupted by artefacts. The use of decision tree models within the Bayesian averaging enables interpreting the results as a set of rules and finding the EEG features which make the most important contribution to assessments. The developed technology was tested on approximately 1,000 EEG recordings of newborns aged 36 to 45 weeks post conception, and the accuracy of assessments was comparable to that achieved by EEG experts. In addition, it was shown that the Bayesian assessment can be used to quantitatively evaluate the risk of brain dysmaturity for each EEG recording.

published_or_final_version / Education / Master / Master of Education

Η εξελικτική πορεία του μαθητικού πληθυσμού της χώρας όσον αφορά στην επαγγελματική του ανάπτυξη βρίσκεται σε ένα κομβικό σημείο στην ηλικία των 14 περίπου χρόνων καθώς το αμέσως επόμενο χρονικό διάστημα ο μαθητής καλείται να λάβει αποφάσεις για την εκπαιδευτική και επαγγελματική του πορεία. Η «επαγγελματική ωριμότητα» περιγράφει και προσδιορίζει το βαθμό της επαγγελματικής ανάπτυξης του ατόμου και έχουν διερευνηθεί, σε διεθνές κυρίως επίπεδο, παράγοντες οι οποίοι τη διαμορφώνουν. Η παρούσα ερευνητική εργασία έχει ως στόχο τη διερεύνηση της σχέσης της επαγγελματικής ωριμότητας με τη σχολική επίδοση μαθητών της Γ’ Γυμνασίου καθώς και με την κοινωνικοοικονομική κατάσταση των γονέων τους, δυο παράγοντες οι οποίοι αφενός δεν έχουν διερευνηθεί επαρκώς και αφετέρου τα ευρήματα προηγούμενων ερευνών είναι αντικρουόμενα. Το δείγμα αποτελείται από 189 μαθητές και μαθήτριες της Γ’ Γυμνασίου και τα δεδομένα της έρευνας συλλέχθηκαν με χρήση της Κλίμακας Επαγγελματικής Εξέλιξης (ΚΕΕ) σε συνδυασμό με κάποιες, δημογραφικού τύπου, ερωτήσεις. Με τη βοήθεια του συντελεστή συσχέτισης ρ-Spearman έγιναν οι αναλύσεις. Τα αποτελέσματα έδειξαν συνάφεια ορισμένων διαστάσεων της επαγγελματικής ωριμότητας κυρίως με τη σχολική επίδοση των μαθητών. Η εργασιακή κατάσταση των γονέων αφήνει ανεπηρέαστη την επαγγελματική ωριμότητα, ενώ το μορφωτικό επίπεδό τους φαίνεται να συσχετίζεται ελάχιστα, αλλά στατιστικώς σημαντικά, τόσο με την κλίμακα «πληροφόρηση» όσο και την κλίμακα «αναζήτηση πληροφοριών» της ΚΕΕ. / Vocational development of Greek pupil population is in a nodal point at the age of 14, after which the students have to make crucial decisions regarding their educational and vocational future. The term “Vocational maturity” is used to describe and determine the degree of vocational development of an individual, and its formative factors have been investigated, mostly in international level. This study investigates the relation between the vocational maturity of students at the 3rd class of secondary school in Greece (Gymnasio) and their school performance, as well as the socioeconomic level of their parents. This study focuses on those two formative factors of vocational maturity for two reasons: firstly because they have not been investigated adequately so far, and secondly because the existing findings from previous studies are conflicting. The sample used in this study consists of 189 students of the 3 rd class of “Gymnasio” and the data were collected using the Scale of Vocational Development in combination with some demographic questions. For the analysis, the Spearman's rank correlation coefficient (Spearman’s ρ) was used. The results indicated that there is a moderate correlation between some dimensions of vocational maturity and the school performance of the questioned students. On the contrary, their vocational maturity appears unaffected by their parents’ professional status, while their parents’ educational level correlates slightly with the dimensions “pliroforisi” (the equivalent of dimension World of Work Information-WW of Supers’ CDI-s form) and “anazitisi plirophorion” (the equivalent of dimension Career Exploration-CE of Supers’ CDI-s form) of the Scale of Vocational Development.

Commonly the thermal maturity of the Late Devonian to Early Mississippian Woodford shale found on the flanks of the Arbuckle Mountains of Oklahoma is determined by vitrinite reflectance, values ranging from 0.3-1.5%. Using phyllosilicate minerals, specifically diagenetic mixed layer illite/smectite and diagenetic illite, an understanding of the extent and processes leading to the thermal maturation may be developed. Analysis by XRD of the clay mineralogy of the Woodford shale found kaolinite and mixed layer illite/smectite with <5% smectite and R≥3 stacking order. Modeling of the Woodford shale also suggests the percentage of smectite present in mixed layer illite/smectite to be <5% and commonly <2.5%. Deconvolution of the illite (001) peak supports the low smectite content and high illite crystallinity. The long range ordered illite, R≥3, and high illite crystallinity values are indicative of diagenesis to anchizone conditions suggesting a higher thermal maturity relative to previously measured values of vitrinite reflectance.